River City Brass Band NOMS

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The River City Brass Band, a twenty-eight member band, is a premiere ensemble of its kind and is the only full-time professional brass band in the United States.  This amazing group was founded in 1981 and was directed by conductor Robert Bernat.  The mission of this group was and still is to entertain, educate, and engage citizens locally and around the world with their American musical culture.  This bands home is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where they rehearse and perform regularly.  The River City Brass Band has performed at venues at Pennsylvania's Musikfest, New York's Chautauqua Institution, Michigan Interlochen Center for the Arts and has toured internationally, one of the most recent places being in Italy.

Today the River City Brass Band is conducted by Dr. James Gourlay, a Scotland native who is acknowledged as one of the world's greatest brass band conductors.  Dr. Gourlay has also conducted one of the most internationally known ensembles, Britain's Grimethorpe Colliery Band where they toured throughout the British Isles, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  Dr. Gourlay is not only a famed conductor in the brass band world but is also an acclaimed tuba soloist, and has performed with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of the Zurich Opera. 

What's really great about the River City Brass Band is the high level performances in all types of musical influences.  They feature American Tunes, Big Band Swing, Jazz, Broadway, Hollywood, Bollywood, Classical, Contemporary Masterworks, and Traditional Marches.  If you check out their recordings you can hear different styles that are played authentically and again at a very high and energetic level. 

Here is a recording from their performance at Carnegie Hall on September 7th, 2017 that features quite a few vocalist soloists:

Scenes from the South Pacific 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6AhwKrPk6g


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